Jacob Hargreave
Jacob Hargreave is the founder of CryNet Systems and the creator of the Nanosuit. He is a major supporting character in Crysis 2. Background Born to middle class parents in Ohio in 1896, Hargreave enjoyed a relatively genteel early life later blighted by his father's bankruptcy. His strong entrepreneurial spirit enabled him to support his family and ultimately made him one of the richest, most powerful men on the planet. Experience has taught him that success invariably lies in seizing latent opportunities for the future before others spot them. His deep distrust of government and governmental power, common to many self-made Americans of the time, has only been intensified by his extreme longevity. In 1919, Hargreave went on a private expedition to investigate the site of the Tunguska Event in 1908 with his colleagues Karl Rasch and Walter Gould. The events transpired in Tunguska led to the discovery of the Ceph and through unknown circumstances left the expedition except for Hargreave, Rasch, and Gould dead. Hargreave was able to carry the other two across the Siberian wastes in an apparently superhuman demonstration of strength and endurance before being rescued by members of the British expeditionary force operating from Vladivostok.The Tunguska Survivors Hargreave also comes into possession of alien technology and knowledge of the threat the Ceph pose to human civilization. Hargreave is only alive as of 2023 because of his efforts in Tunguska where he stole crashed Ceph technology and along with his Karl Rasch established the Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical Research Centre. Later in his life (presumably after World War II) he established CryNet as a subsidiary of Hargreave-Rasch. He managed to continue his life through the use of the stolen Ceph technology and he actually resides in a stasis tube as he is too old to be mobile. He communicates through a proxy screen which is him when he was younger and is always on a chair. He devoted his life to making anti-alien technology by reverse engineering the Ceph tech he found a century ago in Tunguska. His research and development eventually culminated in the Nanosuit 1.0 which he considered a prototype for his grand masterpiece (the Nanosuit 2.0) he needed to test the Nanosuit 1 against actual aliens and thus orchestrated the events in Lingshan in 2020. He was in command of Prophet and presumably guided him around the island. He realised that the Nanosuit 1 was actually more potent than he thought as it was symbiotic and actually learned the nanosystems of the Ceph. Sometime between 2020 and 2023 he and his subsidiary CryNet developed the Nanosuit 2.0. He considered this suit to be his ultimate masterpiece as it had everything in the Nanosuit 1.0 plus more. He developed one more syringe for his Nanosuit 2.0 called the "Final Fixing Protocol" this made the nanites of the Nanosuit 2.0 upgrade to its highest and most adaptive level and thus allowing the destruction of the Ceph in New York City. The Nanosuit Project thumb|300px|left|Hargreave, Nano-Suit 2, Lingshan, Ceph Hargreave is the creator of the original Nanosuit which he issued 19 Nanosuits out of this 15 were issued to members of Raptor, Eagle, and Hawk team. The other 4 Nanosuits seen in Crysis 2 on the "Masks Off" level. They were meant to be either for another Nanosuit team or they are the Nanosuits that belonged to Eagle Team from Crysis Warhead. Hargreave created the war at Lingshan Islands as an experiment to see what the Nanosuit 1.0 was capable of against the Aliens and it was also to see how the Aliens/Ceph would react to fighting against their own technology which had actually being improved on by Hargreave (evident by the Cloak ability the Aliens did not have). The results at Lingshan were much better than he had originally planned, the Nanosuit 1.0 excelled against both hostile Human and Alien forces and even managed to adapt to the lethal environment generated by the Ice Sphere. His 'test' allowed him to see the achievements and flaws of the Nanosuit 1.0, with the Nanosuit 1.0 as his staple design he decided to improve on it. This led him to the creation of the Nanosuit 2.0 or N2; The N2 had all the features of the original Nanosuit 1.0 plus more advanced tech he had developed. Hargreave considers the Nanosuit 2.0 his sole masterpiece and he believes that it is and will be humanities best hope against the Ceph. At the middle of Crysis 2, he tries to rip the Nanosuit 2 off Alcatraz (killing him in the process), without success; it is revealed later that he wanted to wear it to annihilate the Ceph, which could mean that Hargreave created his whole corporation and the Nanosuit project for the only purpose of turning himself into the post-human savior of humanity, which would be an achievement at both the levels of long-term planning and egocentrism. ''Crysis 2 Hargreave had a fallout with Prophet following his return from Lingshan, who he learned of Hargreave's machination of the events at Lingshan. As a result, Prophet stole the Nanosuit 2.0 and forcing Hargreave into having C.E.L.L. to hunt down Prophet and bring the suit back intact in a Ceph infested New York City. Hargreave eventually learned that Prophet had died and the suit was passed on to Alcatraz, whom Hargreave remotely rebooted him following his botched capture by C.E.L.L. and properly introduce himself. Hargreave allied with Alcatraz in guiding him to test whether the Nanosuit's systems can interface with the aliens' technology. The experiment fails, due to the Nanosuit not being powerful enough to ensure the insertion. Hargreave lost contact with Alcatraz after the latter was swept away by a flood caused by the US Marines in an effort to drown the Ceph despite Hargreave trying to extract Alcatraz by helicopter. Hargreave later reconnected with Alcatraz and reveals that the Nanosuit is busy analyzing the alien tissue samples that Alcatraz had previously recovered and is currently rewriting its own code to interface with alien technology. He told Alcatraz and his marine allies to take a detour to the Hargreave-Rasch building where Alcatraz is told to find a stabilizing agent in the bio-lab to facilitate the Nanosuit's analyzing process; however, this was hindered by C.E.L.L. under Commander Dominic Lockhart, who is hellbent in eliminating Alcatraz. Hargreave is outrage by Lockhart's tenacity and disobedience from standing down, as he failed to argue with the C.E.L.L. Commander that harming Alcatraz and importantly the Nanosuit would compromise humanity's only hope against the Ceph. In which Hargreave then learned from Lockhart that CryNet's Board of Directors had decided to side with Lockhart. Seeing that the cause is lost, Hargreave tells Alcatraz to regroup with the marines at Grand Central to help evacuate civilians, while he deals with Lockhart. After Alcatraz and the marines had evacuated Grand Central Terminal, Hargreave contacted Alcatraz at Time Square where another alien spire rises from the ground, which he urged in having him entering the spire, as the Nanosuit had finished processing the alien spores, allowing it to interface with it and re-purpose the spores to be lethal to the Ceph. Thereafter, Alcatraz infiltrate Roosevelt Island, where Hargreave resides in The Prism and being placed under house arrest by Lockhart. Hargreave, having his leadership undermined by Lockhart, helped in guiding Alcatraz through the island's defenses and finally ordering him to kill Lockhart. After Alcatraz killed Lockhart, Hargreave granted Alcatraz access into The Prism, but instead lure him into an EMP trap; Hargreave had intended in wanting the Nanosuit for himself, seeing himself as the "competent human being" to wipe out the Ceph, and attempts to remove the Nanosuit from Alcatraz's body. However, the Nanosuit rejects its removal since it had already completely assimilated with its wearer. Upon learning this, Hargreave gave order to his men to kill Alcatraz in order to relinquish the suit, but only for Alcatraz to be rescue by Tara Strickland. A freed Alcatraz attempts to capture Hargreave in his office, who reveals to Alcatraz of his vegetative state. Hargreave gives Alcatraz a last Nanosuit upgrade, the "Tunguska Iteration", before the Ceph invade the island. Hargreave triggers a countdown timer for the self-destruct system of the complex, and convinces the remaining C.E.L.L. forces to aid Alcatraz's exfiltration. Hargreave decided to resign to his fate on the island as he makes a final contact with Alcatraz before the island exploded. Personality Charming, charismatic, and quite possibly genuinely concerned for those he considers his responsibility, Hargreave is nonetheless equally capable of ruthless sacrifice gambits when he considers them necessary. He harbours an extremely deep hatred for the Ceph. He is a very intelligent man and a talented, implacable strategist, but also a fearless man of action under the necessary circumstances; such as proving being able to save his friends in Tunguska in a superhuman demonstration of strength and power of will, and wanting to rip the Nanosuit 2 off of Alcatraz to be able to fight and vanquish the Ceph by himself despite his more than a century old body, which is an obvious proof of his courage and determination. Quotes Trivia *Hargreave shares some similarities to the character Robert House from ''Fallout: New Vegas in which they preserved their bodies, aging beyond their limited lifespans, communicate through a computer proxy, and being confronted by the protagonist and discovering their true identity. References Category:Crysis 2 Characters